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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Graduation season is upon us, and with it comes the irony of those who cannot spell congratulating those who have (hopefully) learned to do so. In writing.

I suppose it would be easier if "graduation" and "congratulations" didn't sound so much alike. As it is, we end up with a lot of Franken-style mash-ups:

Putting a "d" in "congratulations" is now so common that I've had folks tell me it's a new word created specifically for congratulating graduates. [burying face in hands] *sob*

Admit it: Now you want to see a cake that says "CongradulationsGratuates" as much as I do. Well, I don't have one. (Yet.) But I do have some more fun manglings:

"Congratutahons, Sus & Robert!"

What's that? Her name isn't "Sus"? Meh. So Sue me.

After a while you start to see the same mistakes over and over again. There's the "Something's Missing...":

The "End of the Road!":

(Complete with a truly epic grad cap - wow.)

And of course the classic "Letter Switcheroo":

Actually, this is a Switcheroo combined with "Something's Missing", since there's no "e". And while "Gradutas" does sound like something from Taco Bell, it kinda has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

Some decorators successfully navigate the "congratulations/graduation" minefield only to stumble right on the home stretch:

That's quite the stumble though. "Comminsoning?"(It was supposed to be "commissioning".)

Then there's this...thing:

CCCs with "s"s that look like "g"s, gratuitous ellipses, and sloppy icing piled higher than the cupcakes themselves have no "honor". Only "honers".

*tsk, tsk* So SAD people have to resort to paying for these mistakes- just goes to show even if you might not need Math to frost/decorate a cake, STAY IN SCHOOL! ;o) You definitely need English though... That's for sure!

I was writing congratulations on a cake the other week and had my husband in the background telling me to make sure I spelled it correctly so that I didn't create a wreck! I'm only a hobby decorator and had the word spelled correctly on a piece of paper in front of me. I guess it would be too much to ask the same of the "pros"! Too funny!

There was an episode of Three's Company where Chrissy was making a banner that was supposed to say, "Congratulations On Your Graduation," but it didn't fit, so she put, "Congraduation!" on it instead. Maybe that's what started it.

Having just ordered a graduation cake last week, I have to say this cracks me up even more. Right on the order form they have a big, bold reminder to the decorators to CHECK ALL SPELLING before putting the messages on the cake.

When DD was just learning to decorate cakes, the manager of her shift came in one afternoon, soundly castigated her in front of the other employees, and made her SCRAPE OFF the "T" in "Congratulations" and put in a "D" on each and every one of the three dozen cakes she'd finished that morning.

She would not listen to anyone else, including all the other employees, as to the correct spelling.

When the customers came in to pick up their cakes and complained about the error, manager maintained that she was correct, and again yelled at DD that they must have just been upset that she perhaps hadn't done the substitution NEATLY ENOUGH.

can i just say for the record, that i think pre-school "graduations" are completely stupid and unnecessary? they just started these a few years ago, and it's ridiculous. next we'll have 2nd grade graduations, 4th grade, 6th-into-jr. high...it's ridiculous.

Wow. You know, I don't think people are actually meant to eat the CCCs. There must be some code all CCC Makers follow. "I solemnly swear to ice all of my Cupcake atrocaties with at least two inches of icing, and to dye the icing such a ridiculous color, with/and/or place truly dizzying and sickening airbrushing on top.

I have in fact made a cake with congratulations spelled with a 'd' and not a 't'. But it was conGRADulations! So that the misspelling was shown to be on purpose. Don't know if that makes it any better. Probably not.

Oh todays blog entry brought me some memorable laughs... I specifically remember a high school friend, who worked in a greeting card store, telling me that congratulations and congraduations were both words, one being specifically for graduates. Nearly 20 years later and I STILL remember laughing right at her, telling her she was WRONG.

Honestly, you guys are so quick to judge! Obviously the orange/brown decorated cake was for a graduate of a school that had a tiger for its mascot. "ConGRAULations" should have been "ConGROWLations." And graduating with "honers?" Who's to say the recipient wasn't a harmonica performance major at Julliard, hmmm?

As a former teacher, I am unable to fully express just how irritating these cakes are. If I were to receive one of these as a young "graduta," I would be afraid of my diploma shriveling up into a pile of ash.

Way to save the, er, "best" for last, though! That's gotta be the highest-scoring wreck yet. This just may inspire me to develop "Cake Wrecks: the Home Game." Kind of like highway bingo, but played in bakeries instead.

Reminds me of an episode of "Three's Company" when Jack was graduating from cooking school. Chrissy was in charge of the banner which read - yep, you guessed it! - CONGRADUATIONS (she didn't have room to write "Congratulations on your Graduation").

When I ordered the cake for my daughter's graduation, I was certain I would wind up with a wreck. The woman asked if I wanted the word "always" spelled with an "s". As an English teacher, I had to tell her yes, because without the "s" it isn't a word...sigh...

Hey, that's my Fudgie the Whale! It was for my bridal shower, and I loved it even more because it was clearly a Cakewreck. And yes, my name is not Sus, it's Sue. And they had my now-husband's name as Robin until my sister-in-law corrected them. This made my day.

I'm a retail store cake decorator. (And no, I haven't seen one of mine here yet..lol) Many years ago when I was still just a clerk I actually had a customer argue with me saying that her inscription was spelled wrong. The inscription read "Congratulations" and she along with her family said it should be "Congradulations". I finally had to grab a graduation decoration and prove her wrong. Many people order their cake with it spelled wrong and I've threatened every year to copy the dictionary page just to have handy for people. Oh, the stories I could tell you all..lol I need to start taking pictures of what people order. :P

Egads. Did y'all notice that the CCC not only has an unbelievably thick layer of icing on it, but they actually piped another huge rope of frosting on top of THAT?!

Seriously, I didn't think it was physically possible to make icing that thick! Is it like spackle when you have a rather large flaw to fill--you have to put a bit, then let it dry, then add more and let it dry, and etc.

Horrors! That cake could have taken DAYS to construct!!! *runs screaming*

I have to admit I completely give everyone a pass on the cake writing. I just cannot pipe words on a cake...cannot figure it out. I have more than passable penmenship (nuns+rulers=lovely script)but piping bag. Just awful. But to be fair I worked with a wonderful old decorator, his writing on a cake was well just stunning, gorgeous...art. But try to read his writing on a cake form...two words...serial killer. I mean it looked like he carved letters onto paper.LOL

I remember when I was a kid watching Three's Company, Jack graduated from cooking school and Chrissy put up a sign that said 'Congraduations'. Her explanation was that she couldn't fit 'Congratulations on Your Graduation' on the sign. And I recall thinking, "Huh, well, that's not going away now." (And yes, a lot of my seminal moments in life came from cheesy sitcoms, why do you ask?)

Well, 'Tis the season!Time to calibrate the ValleydickToryanns and SalootaToryanns...and let's not forget all of the other Gradualwits who aren't named Tory Ann.Great time of year for the cake business, no?

I was just barely walking through the store and saw about 10 cakes displayed with "Congratulations" written on them...but half of them were written in a nice scroll and the other half was print- all the ones in print said "Congradulations" and I did let them know...but they just said..."Yeah, we'll fix it." Yeah right!

That one cake with the grad hats on it looks like some sort of thing with a yellow arm...

David B said... "We should just be grateful that the "h" on "honers" did not look like a "b"."******************Yikes--good point! I am quite grateful; especially since ONE would've been enough! You know, for being on a cake and all.(...somehow, something still doesn't sound right here...)=^@@^=

This drives me crazy! I had to correct SO many of these cakes when I was managing an ice cream shop. All the employees wanted to decorate cakes so they would "help out" by taking care of the cake orders when I wasn't there. I had to correct 30 misspelled grad cakes in a single June!

Verification Word: crien (what I was doing when I came in to another freezer full of misspelled cakes)

First I was confused by the "preschool" gratuation cake; previously to now I thought the first thing you could matriculate from was Kindergarten (or is it -garden?) Then the whale cake blew me away...not getting the tie to etucation there.But Gradutas? I don't think these people are understanding the gravitas of the situacion...graduashun is a big deal!!!

You know, I remember making a card for my dad when he got his MBA that said "ConGRADuations!" on it...thing was, I was 6 years old at the time, and I spelled it that way ON PURPOSE. Granted, I was a fairly precocious child, but still, if a 6-year-old can come up with this, should it really be that hard for adults in bakeries to figure it out? Or at least to consult a dictionary? Seriously.

When I graduated from high school, my mom actually *tried* to get a cake that said "Congraduations Gratulate" as a joke. Of course, on the one cake where it was actually *supposed* to be misspelled, they spelled it correctly.

The amount of icing on that CCC is...amazing. That had to have taken some work.

If it makes you feel any better, I bought one of those "congratulations" banners with the individual words stuck together with brads yesterday. When I opened it today and hung it up, I realized it said "Goncratulations." I'm going to the Dollar Tree tomorrow to buy another to see if they're all like that...

i can't stand people confusing the spellings of "graduation" and "congratulations", but the "sus" on that one cake I can understand. my name is suzanne, and a lot of people call me "suz" (pronounced "sooz"). maybe a susan that people call sus?

Amazingly enough, I saw a gift bag at a local chain pharmacy that was spelled "congradulations" I had to take a double look as the letters were all wonky to start with. Crazy world- you can now get a gift bag to match your misspelled cake.

When I was in high school I worked for a bakery where the decorators thought it was super clever to write "CON - GRAD - ULATIONS!" on all the graduation cakes. Which I thought was moronic, but at least they KNEW that's not how the word's spelled.

I wish I had a "before" picture of my brother's graduation cake last year. He was a the valedictorian. I went to go pick up his cake, and then name of the high school was spelled wrong. I was pointed out this misspelling and the answer was "Oh, well will it be okay?" "No, it will no be okay for the valedictorian to have his school misspelled on his cake." It did get "fixed."Here's one question... do YOU know how to spell the name of the town yo live in?

Taking a 'can you spell like a 5th grader?' quiz should be a requirement to work in the bakery. Ours just recently posted a sign saying "CONGRATULATIONS, no T" in the decorating area. I don't know why they didn't think of it sooner!

yo Jen,Just thought I'd let you know that graduating "with honers" is something that is common in high school and college, like if you were an honor student throughout you are said to be graduating with honers. At least where I'm from anyway.

OMG, I laughed so hard when I read this and resolved not to make the same mistake on my sister in law's cake. Just to be safe, I made myself stop and check it. Thank goodness I did! I managed to fix "Congratulai" into "Congratulations!" I have a *little* bit of sympathy for cake decorators after that experience...but not much, HA!

I remember seeing another misspelling somewhere (not on a cake; probably a badly translated video game) where it was written "Conglaturation." That one was so bad it was almost funny. These just make me cringe.

And I like frosting as much as the next person, but I've gotta say that CCC is simply disgusting. And a good way to give yourself diabetes. Blech.

Oy! That last CCC (patooey!)... The directions are simple enough that anyone could make this, though I don't know why any sane person would:

1. Get a bunch of cupcakes.

2. Mix enough frosting to cover two dozen real cakes. Use a wheelbarrow, so the shovel will fit.

3. Apply frosting. Take frequent breaks during this process so that you don't hurt your back.

4. Finish with either a trowel or a steamroller (it looks like the former was used, but I would have suggested the latter).

Maybe there were several kids at the party in question, and all of them lived at least two hours away. By car. Any adults in attendance thus learned that they should never order a cake with 'extra frosting' (in case the wreckerator measures in cubic yards as this one did), and 'honer' was restored to the land.

By the way, 'gradutas' has a nice, Latin sound to it. Sounds very important and honerable.

So I'm wondering how many of those cakes were misspelled on the order form too because at a grocery store the decorator isn't necessarily the only one taking the orders, that means at LEAST two people looked at those orders and still no one caught the mistake. I'm a cake decorator and you have no idea how many messages are misspelled on the order (at least 5 a week). ~Katie

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